Can’t say I’m not used to that choice.
Without another word, I step back, stunned by my naivety. Soon, I feel Ava’s hand tenderly caress my back, lips folding over my skin for a kiss that feels undeserved.
“It’s okay,” she says. “We’ll figure this out. Together.”
I exhale, thinking, unable to stop my mind from racing.
“And if we don’t leave,” she continues, “we can just stay here. We can build a life. A better life than the one outside.”
My heart seems to pause, blood turning cold. “Stay here? Impossible.”
She merely smiles as if everything is okay, as if this is all a part of some grand benevolent plan. But I’m sure it is the opposite. Malevolence runs through this world. There is no reason to lead us here unless to aid our downfall.
Oddly enough, I don’t fear losing my direction. I’m used to fighting. Used to dying, too. I’m not used to the fear of losing her.
Our connection is still shallow, and what I was promised never came to fruition. But it is clear we have formed a bond.
She gave me her body. I gave her my seed. A holy ritual that brings two souls together. Within that exchange was an oath to protect her and guide her out of harm’s way.
I don’t know how to do that anymore, and that creates a deep sense of discomfort.
Instinct forces me to protect her.
A few steps into this world, and we come to a stop. A great retching, and a powerful roar mightier than any cosmic storm I’ve ever faced rings out.
And then we see it. The truth about this place.
“Jesus Christ,” she whispers.
“Look away,” I tell her.
But she isn’t looking away. She’s staring with all her might, face pale with shock.
The streets are lined with skulls. Wild animals with metallic disfigurements, toxic monstrosities of horrific magnitudes scan the perimeter of the city, eating the remains of what appear to be other machine-like humans with torn flesh, revealing their metallic bones.
When these horrid creatures chew, I can see bits of metal, glittering silver and gold, chopped-up pieces hanging from their gnarled lips.
We hear them screaming.
Are they alive?
Am I alive?
“Snap the fuck out of it,” I tell myself. I’m alive.
I am not a cog in this fucked up machine.
I try to look away, to pretend I didn’t see what I definitely just witnessed. Machines eating machines, a regenerative cycle. They are becoming stronger through their own demise.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
I shift back a few steps, wary, my blood, thick in my veins. “Come,” I say, urging her forward. “And keep your head down. I’m not sure how dangerous this place is.”
The city feels no safer than the outside. The streets swarm with the addled and the insane, all leaning heavily in their hatred toward any onlooker, bent on delivering some kind of message or other sinister revelation.
Above the city landscape, further in from the sun, lie two bright, purple moons, suspended by a blooming sunset. The light shines between the dilapidated buildings and climbing freeways.
There are very few trees here, perhaps ten or less. Concrete has grown over the natural world like a virus that demands death to all life.
I don’t know what happens next. Not this time. I’m as new to this as she is.
So we walk. In silent fear, Ava grabs my hand, twisting her fingers against mine until we’re locked together with enough courage to continue.
I’ve never identified with a human before. They were always pitiful and pathetic, acting like victims whenever they saw an opportunity to cut me down.
But she’s different. She’s not afraid of me. I believe she will not betray me.
My race honors the bond between two souls. We have duties, bonds that cannot be broken. We engage in acts of mercy and sacrifice. What one experiences, the other experiences tenfold, so every relationship creates a balance.
I haven’t felt a balance in a long time. Chaos is all I know. But she’s helping me weather the storm.
“Why did Elon allow this?” she asks aloud.
Elon. I have to find him.
“It’s renewing itself,” I tell her. “The world is mirroring, splitting in two, endlessly like fractals.”
We’ll get lost in this place. We’ll never escape...
We step onto a street, and suddenly we’re walking through a row of houses. In the peripheral there is a large construction, shaped like a diamond piercing the atmosphere above, a well-known skyscraper from my planet.
“I know this place,” she says. “It’s near my neighborhood.”
There are solemn faces in the windows. Some, alien. Others, human. They watch us silently, an eerie sight to behold. This isn’t her neighborhood. It’s a false image, and we should look away.
“So do I,” I whisper.
“Our minds are—”
Ava pauses, swallows, and exhales, trembling.
“Our minds are connected,” I say. “We make this world. Every step we take creates new experiences. We are both infected. And I’m not sure if there’s a cure.”
She turns, franticly obsessing over her thoughts. I should calm her down, but the truth is, I think she needs to go through this to wake up. This isn’t some fun game. What we have found ourselves in is Hell. I don’t care if someone made it or not. It is what it is.
It’s like I said. I’m not one of the characters. I didn’t plan for this.
Does anyone believe me?
“You were right,” she stutters. “You told me. You tried to warn me.”
“What do you fear the most?” I ask.
Her neck rolls. A shiver causes her to tremble outward. “Why do you ask?”
I look past the row of houses. The buildings are in chaos, white-tailed, orange flames spewing from windows and doors, smoldering in the cracks and crevices like red crystals. The air rushes through, blowing the foundation, striking fast, and causing them to buckle and collapse.
I’m one of the strongest, most resilient aliens I know, but seeing this makes me feel like an ant. Like I’m completely out of control.
Chaos reigns.
“Because if we keep walking, that’s what we might find.”
She sucks in her cheeks. “There’s nothing I worry about,” she says, starting to walk with outward courage.
I run after her, taking her arm, but she quickly yanks it into her chest. “Tell me the truth,” I say.
She bites down, eyes narrowing. “This is just coded language. It can be deciphered,” she declares.
Cognitive dissonance is one hell of a drug. “Here we go,” I groan.
There’s no ignoring the reality of this place. It’s a fucked-up fever dream on steroids. I’ve lived through a lot, but I’ve never seen anything like it.
A magnificent howl rings over the land. More gunshots. Explosions and more screaming. Death all around us. An apocalypse every second.
I don’t want to witness any more. Not yet.
I just want her.
Her touch. Her fuck. Her sweet, plump lips that provide enough sugar to keep me smiling for days.
“All we have is each other,” I say.
And she knows it. I can see it in her eyes, a reflective coating of emotion. She is looking for something here.
Someone.
She was looking for me. But I believe she was looking for something else as well. Something from her past. Something she’s hiding from me.
“Let’s not talk about it, okay? The thing I fear isn’t that dangerous,” she says. “Just another loud-mouthed asshole.”
I shut my mouth and allow her some peace. There are many things I haven’t shared with her. My family was torn apart. My planet, ravaged and destroyed.
I saw too many hardships to count, lived through hell and back until I was trapped and taken by forces much stronger than myself.
I know how
it feels to realize you’re just another rat in a cage. So maybe I should shut the fuck up and let her have some time to herself.
“More than anything,” she says, “I just want to feel safe again. With you.”
Without a destination, I let her lead the way. We walk through great beams, miles of rusted pipes, metal culverts that spill white, mechanical fluids near stationary floodlights. They are pointed toward a path we instinctually follow. More oil cylinders than I can count, moving mechanically, pumping at a rhythm akin to a heartbeat.
It’s like it’s alive.
Our curiosity and fear leads us through the mechanical pathway that soon turns into a complex construction, intersecting over our heads, and blocking out the natural world entirely.
Still, there are cracks and pockmarks, denuded pipes, and sections broken from the building's elegant trusses where light spills inside.
We keep walking, and suddenly, at the end of the damp tunnel, the water catches our ankles. When it begins to overflow, I know we've reached an opening.
There is a sandy beach that leads toward an ocean. I know because I used to live near here. I used to swim in these waters. It’s where my mother and father took me as a youngling...
Seeing this place hits me harder than I expected. For what feels like a lifetime, I have been searching for a way out, a path back to my planet.
Well, here I am. Maybe it’s not the actual place, but it sure fucking feels like it.
It won’t bring my family back. Nothing will. The cycle of life is cruel and full of confusion, and somehow, we are meant to grow from these experiences.
It feels harder than impossible.
All I want is to hold her close to me. To feel her like I felt her last night.
But with tenderness. And deliberate care.
I want to enjoy her.
When we reach the shoreline, she lowers to her knees, allowing the water to roll around her smooth calves and dainty ankles.
“Will you rest here with me?” she asks.
“Of course,” I say.
I lower with her. The shadows of faded cities hint at the ghostly silence of this place, and just beyond that, the wind has died down. I sigh, encouraging her to lay against me with my lips and nose buried in her hair.
“They took my family,” I say.
Pausing to gaze into my eyes, she lowers her mouth and hesitates to give a response.
“It’s okay,” I say. “It’s just… something I needed to tell you. That’s how I got here. Earth Federation. They stole me, killed them. That’s my story.”
A single tear falls from her eyes, and she bends to shield the sight of sadness. I’m just glad she cares.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “Our universe is obsessed with domination. I’ve had my own problems with it, but it’s nothing you have experienced.”
I tell her more, recounting the invasions, the fire bombings, and the horrors that made up my ascent into manhood. She can hardly understand the systematic cruelty my people have faced, but I do not blame her. Ava is different.
She is empathetic and understanding.
“And you?” I ask. “What is your pain?”
She swallows and bends her head, shaking. “Not tonight,” she says.
The wind flows across the water, a beautiful sight to behold. But it is not as beautiful as her.
“I understand.”
She nuzzles my chest and takes a few deep breaths, her body, warm against mine. It's comforting, and if I was allowed, I would close my eyes and rest here forever. I could stay here all night and dream a thousand dreams about what our future might look like once we get out of here.
But I don’t want to dream anymore. I want to feel. I want to act.
I want to fuck.
And so does she.
When I tilt her chin, her eyes burn with intense emotion. Her hips roll back, grinding like a stone to mortar, hands sliding around my thighs.
“We don’t need to worry. Not tonight,” she whispers.
I press closer. I am swallowing my memories of this place, feeling like I have been scooped up whole by this woman. Like she’s taking me somewhere very far from the familiar, but I am not scared.
I am soothed. Soothed that I can feel, and the feeling is her.
My cock is growing. Throbbing beneath her ass, trapped by her beauty. I grab her thighs, growling, feeling a strange way. I can feel her surrender. My grip tightens, and I thrust forward, caressing her hips with my weight.
She lowers her pelvis to meet my thrusts, with no effort. We move so easily together that I almost forget the pain of losing everything I once knew.
I'm mewling, pumping softly when she begins to moan, almost in awe. "Mm, baby, do you like that?"
“You feel fucking incredible,” I grunt. “I want to taste you.”
I brush her hair from her neck and kiss the sensitive curve of skin, inhaling her scent, licking her like candy.
She shudders, trying to pull away, but I insist. Feeling her quiver, my hands slip down to cup around her pussy, lips guarding her treasure. I roll my palm, and a small pool of liquid forms.
She moans and jerks her chin.
“Yes, Kalxor,” she cries, arching her back into the air and grinding into me.
I feel her, sliding one finger inside her tight entrance, thumb on her clit, circling gently. I can feel more wetness gathering in her pussy as she gasps.
My cock stirs beneath me.
“Eat me,” she begs. “Give me your mouth.”
We kiss and we tease until I can’t take it anymore. “I want to taste you so fucking bad.”
I slide out from behind her, swaying her legs apart, until her moist mound shines against the moonlight. I sink my teeth into her thighs before smoothing it out with a kiss.
“I want to complete you,” I growl.
"Kalxor…" she interrupts, groaning.
I grab her by the collar and lightly choke. Sliding one finger inside, I breathe in her musky scent and twist her nipple, while licking the underside of her twitching clit.
Her legs jerk, and her hands fall on the back of my head. Inhaling the rich, thick scent that fills my nose, I grab her breast again and rub it lovingly as I start to eat her harder and faster.
Two fingers turn to three. Three turns to four.
As her body squirms against mine, I moan into her pussy, cock throbbing. I reach down and pump, and I can't help but dig my tongue deeper.
“P-Please," she stammers.
Her hips shudder and her pussy tenses around my fingers. "Please... I’m going to fucking come.”
I keep going, keep eating her like I'm a dog lapping up milk. And it's not long before I feel the quake in her pelvis roll through her stomach.
"Yes," I hear. "Coming..."
She twists and turns, her body tensing to build up as she comes again and again. She doesn't have any energy left to fight anymore. She has come undone, broken. Pushed to her limit.
She’s shaking, eyes shut tight, screaming louder than a hurricane siren. Her hands planted firmly on the back of my head, pushing me in deeper. Waves of pleasure consume her, but the soft thumps of orgasm grows more distant as the seconds pass.
When she can open her eyes, she’s got a smile as big as my cock. She knows I’m here for her, that I’ll never leave her. And to show me her gratitude, she takes hold of my shaft.
One hand pumps. The other cups and massages my balls, instantly sending me into a state near ecstasy.
I give an involuntary gasp as the two hands come together in a death grip around my cock. She’s got my number, one hundred percent, twisting and pumping in a rhythm I cannot escape.
I jolt, my whole body tensing, cock bobbing now and then. A fit of shudders sweeps me over the edge.
And then she opens that sweet mouth of hers. She takes me in, back to that warm home at the back of her throat. She gags and releases, saliva catching around my crown as rich beads of lubricant spill onto her tongue.
Her kiss is hot and passionate. Her suck, soft and innocent. Her mouth is wet and intoxicating, and I can’t get over how gorgeous she looks with my cock stuffed in her throat.
She gasps, mouth open.
"You must be in heaven," she says.
I nod and cave down further. “This is too fucking perfect.”
"I can feel your heartbeat," she moans.
Then, with a look of pure desire, just to please me, she grabs ahold of my cock and starts to stroke, faster than before. She plunges her lips over my shaft, holding me there for as long as she can.
I feel my taint pulse, balls as hard as stone. My eyes roll back, breath shallow. Then, when my body is stilled, I release a blissful scream, my hard cock shooting waves of cum against the roof of her mouth.
She lets the stream continue to reach her throat, swallowing every few seconds, eyes pointed up at mine.
It’s astounding.
When my body steadies, she pulls her mouth off and glances down, bashfully swallowing the last remnants of seed. I wipe her chin with my thumb and spoon the remainder into her mouth, and her eyes narrow again, satisfied.
“Let’s make a vow,” she says.
“A vow?”
She nods and brings herself close to me. “A promise that we’ll never leave each other. That, no matter what happens to this world, we’ll always remember how our hearts connected.”
This place continues to connect us. But I feel as though something was made to break that connection.
I’m eager to stay and give her the oath of a thousand lifetimes, but just as my fears manifest in my mind, the world begins to change again. The beach deconstructs. The ocean dries, and the moon falls from the sky.
Suddenly, we’re standing on that cold, damp path again, and the machine’s heartbeat fills the air.
Just another trick. Another illusion.
My memories come back to me. Everyone I care about is gone. And this lost woman I’ve sought to find and protect in an infinite cycle of survival and exile is someone I am incapable of protecting. As strong as I am, as capable and confident as I used to be, I can’t pretend I’m not worried.
I feel it hit my heart, and she knows it too because I can see the worry in her eyes.
What am I supposed to do when all I have left is broken dreams?
And that's when I feel it. The drawing intensity. A curious rumble. And the screaming.
Alien Beast: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Page 8